Charles Gonzalez

Biographical Information:

C. H. Gonzalez, PhD. is an assistant professor of Teaching and Learning at Austin Peay State University where he coordinates the Master of Arts in Teaching degree programs and is the Coordinator of Diversity Initiatives for the College of Education. His scholarship, which merges traditional qualitative techniques with antiracist practices and aesthetic-based methods, favors the collective over the individual. The learning, unlearning, and relearning that he is continually undertaking impacts the way he engages with the people in his life and influences how he uses his unearned privileges to support his students, colleagues, and friends. His presentations and publications intersect at the field of teacher education, ABAR practices, and the strength of the multicultural classroom.

Social locations and position in higher education:

I was raised in a “Hispanic” family, but I’ve since learned and unlearned that my Spanish heritage makes me white. I’m an English-speaking, cisgender man born in what is known as the United States, specifically the land of the Haudenosaunee and Tuscarora tribes. I currently live on the land of the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee). Although I present as abled, I hold unseen conditions that impact the way I navigate through social and reserved situations. I grew up in a middle-class community with unearned privilege and advantages. The lessons and truths I’m learning and unlearning have shaped my scholarship and the stance I take as an antiracist educator and leader at the institutions at which I have worked and have shaped the aspirations and goals I hold regarding social justice work inside and outside the field of teacher education.

I have published research on multimodality, teacher education, and implementing digital video into English/Language Arts classrooms. My current work is focused on discovering ways to encourage and support teachers to be culturally relevant and uncovering ways to develop new culturally sustaining pedagogies. I am currently part of the Association of Teacher Educators’ (ATE) inaugural Inquiry Initiative, a collaborative exploration of opportunity gaps in education.

• Oamek, K., & Gonzalez, C. H. (2024). Preparing Justice-Oriented Teacher Educators: Gaps, Opportunities & New Directions. The New Educator, 20(3-4), 164–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688x.2024.2411351 

• Gonzalez, C. H., & Short, D. F. (published). Discovering a Silenced Impact: Connecting Students to Their Academic Heritage. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11989/19071 

• Alexander, K., Gonzalez, C. H., Vermette, P. J., Solarski, J. A., Guerriero, M., & Walls, B. (2023). A-STEM Teacher's Guide to The Road That Led to Somewhere. Proverbs Heritage Organization. 

• Gonzalez, C. H., Burgin, X. D., Oamek, K., Byrd, N., Mayhill, D., Hunt, C. S., & Horn, S. (2023). Our Journey with the ATE Inquiry Initiative: Growing into Our Role as Disruptors. The Teacher Educators' Journal, 16(2), 3–20. 

• Alexander, K., Gonzalez, C. H., Vermette, P. J., & DiMarco, S. (2022). Questions in secondary classrooms: Toward a theory of questioning. Theory and Research in Education, 20(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785211043020 

• Gonzalez, C. H., Vermette, P. J., Bardsley, M. E., & Alexander, K. (2021). Informing Instruction with Vignette Analysis: Powerful Professional Growth for Middle and High School Teachers. Routledge. 

• Asmus, B., & Gonzalez, C. H. (Eds.). (2020). Engaging the Critical in English Education: Approaches from the Commission on Social Justice in Teacher Education (B. Asmus & C. H. Gonzalez, Eds.). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b17220 

• Gonzalez, C. H., & Asmus, B. (2020). What is Social Justice to Teacher Education? A History of the Commission on Social Justice in Teacher Education Programs. In B. Asmus & C. H. Gonzalez (Eds.), Engaging the Critical in English Education (pp. 3–18). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3726/b17220 

• Bruce, D. L., Sullivan, S. R., Barrett, N. M., & Gonzalez, C. H. (2019). Full of Sound and Fury. In Negotiating Place and Space Through Digital Literacies (pp. 97–116). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-64113-485-920251009